UsernameProvided
by 8Legs
Summary: SU sorta modern AU(?) GEMS ARE PEOPLE(?). This is a story about an interesting team of cops whom will go through thick and thin to get the job done and bring everyone home safe, but that all changes when an unruly thug thwarts a mission and sends the team into calamity. More Information inside. This won't be a happy read, I strongly advise you to bring a parent.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Sup guys! Figured I'd try out something other than fluffy stuff, granted this will have some fluff at points, but I assure you, It will be very rare and probably never with the same people twice, so no solid pairings.  
As I mentioned somewhere, this does sorta relate to the FallOut series, but not enough to be a cross-over. Don't worry, if you haven't plaid any FallOut games, that's okay. Barely anything related to the FallOut will be mentioned anyway, so it shouldn't be too hard to understand. No characters from the FallOut games will be in this fic, just sorta the architectural balance and the use of radiation, because those were inspirational to me personally and I sorta wrapped it up nicely with everything Steven Universe.  
 **I don't own FallOut or Steven Universe nor do I intend to make a profit off anything.** I'm just here to write and entertain the public with little black words over a white backdrop.  
 **WARNING! BEFORE YOU READ, this fic is rated M and it's M for a good reason; mentions of rape, mental and physical torture, attempted suicide, blood, harassment, child abuse, chemical warfare, self harm, parental issues, probably meaningless sex, death, drug use, alcohol abuse, and plenty of crime are present in this read**. If this seems like this a story you couldn't handle, then click that back button and read something that isn't quite so... well this. Don't say I haven't warned you.  
These characters are going to get hurt. A lot.  
Also, lemme know if you find something that's off or is misspelled, I don't mind constructive criticism and I genuinely want to hear from you guys. What are your thoughts about this? How does something in this read make you feel so far? What are you eating right now? Be good, make nice friends, and share your cookies!  
Alright, enough from meeeeee~  
READ ON

"What's the situation?"

"Are you deaf Jasper, or did you just ignore me the first time I told you?"

"Yes" A groan sounded from a grumpy blond tech officer waiting inside an armored van stationed across the street from an abandon wear-house that a few other officers were now infiltrating, awaiting orders from her.

"Get in. Suppress the threat. Undermine the criminals. And invoke justice. Like always." She and one other officer, Pearl, whom was seated in the van shared a glance before she shifted her bright green eyes back to her computer, assessing a few smaller open windows on the screen. These other open windows were the cameras built into the infiltrating officers vests. There were four screens in total, four screens for four cops;

Garnet, her screen was outlined with a deep crimson color with a little number "1" in the corner. Garnet was lead in this outfit currently, one of the tallest and leanest, like an NBA player, people had to literally look up to her and then some when she wasn't keeping her huge Afro concealed under the police hat. She didn't speak much, but was very knowledgeable on foot and forceful at hand. Quick thinker and faster in action, all-around good officer.

Greg, his screen was outlined with a bright violet color (only because he was wearing Amethyst's vest for this mission, Amethyst was in another car at the other side of the building playing lookout in undercover attire) with a little number "2" in the corner much like Garnets'. Greg is a very soft individual, didn't look much like a cop with his long brown hair, really bad tan-lines, and he was a little over weight... He just didn't fit a hard-ass cop profile, and it often compromises missions, but It's a good thing when dealing with some situations, he's a sweet guy and is very motivational, he can often talk a target down without much of a fight.

Lars, sense this kid is a rookie and this was literally his first mission, he got the default white outline and a number "3". This skinny kid barely passed in school and in the police academy guess the force decided he'd make a good asset to the team. His records read that he's only had one other job before this one, in a doughnut shop. His records also showed all of his absences and late showings to said job. Sketchy kid... with his orange "Fo-Hawk" and ridiculous gauged ears.. The experienced technician didn't trust him in the slightest.

And finally, Jasper. Her screen was illuminated orange with the number "4" in a corner. Jasper was a brute, reckless, and rather rude. An act first and think later person. Lots of people on the force didn't even think she was human due to her Amazon-like build with this wild crazy long platinum blond hair. Tall, broad, tan, and hard. Lots of men dreamed of having a body like hers, now if only her brain was as big as the muscles in her middle finger then maybe she would be inclined to use her head more so rather than said finger in problematic situations.

These numbers and colors on her computer screen also pertained to the Individual's outfits. All the vests are black and the uniforms consist of dark grey long-sleeved undershirts, navy blue cargo pants with black boots, belt, and ball caps. The only difference in these outfits is the little number of the unit on the left breast of the vest and some slight color on the clasps, zippers, and buttons. Her own uniform as well as her fellow tech were a bit more special, the vest itself was built lighter and along with the number and respected color, a little "t" was present beside the number to represent TECHNICIAN. Peridot's vest consisting of light greens and Pearls of... well pearl.

"Alright, by the look of the layout, and by the blueprints Peridot unearthed... You guys should be above a small narrow electrical tunnel, Greg, from where you are standing, I need you to lift the third tile from the floor, the material under it should be soft and give way easily. Garnet, I need you to follow up and use your knife to cut an opening in the floor," the red-head adjusted her communication device as she spoke, her brows knitting together, keeping an eye on the cameras. She was tapped into the building's security cameras, making damn sure that none of the police units were in sight. If she could see them, the enemy could see them too.

Greg nodded in confirmation, looking to the floor, counting out the tiles and coming to his knees. He worked with some building instillation back in the day, hell, he practically built a car-wash, removing a single poorly placed floor tile was easy-mush. Well it should be. Apparently the grout was a bit stiffer than they expected and it was taking him some time to get the delicate material up. Jasper wasn't amused by how long this was taking and growled under her breath.

"For real? Come on Greg" The poor man gave her a look and worked his hands a little faster, the panel unmoving. Jasper shifted her weight in her place, making to leave the position.

"What do you think your doing Jasper?" Peridot spoke up sounding slightly annoyed seeing Jasper move from standing guard at the mouth of the hall.

"Out the way, Greg. Lemme show you how it's done-"

"Jasper, let's talk about this!" There was a loud crunching noise that echoed through the halls and made both the technicians cringe. Jasper had lifted one of her big heavy boots and dropped it hard onto the surface once, the tile and the flooring below it caving into the open space below.

Silence...

Wellthat was easy," the brute woman lifted her boot and took a step back, grinning at her work proudly as she could practically hear Peridot's eye twitching over the communicative device. Greg moved to the rubble and scooped out all the debris, exposing heavy industrial tubed wires.

"Peri, you got a visual? What do you think we should do? These tubes all look the same," Peridot looked to his screen, getting a eye-full of the tubs before looking to Pearl for confirmation, In turn, the pasty woman nodded.

"I do have a visual, Greg" She paused, looking the tubs over thoroughly "Garnet, we need your muscle-"

"I have muscle!"

"Cheeto please. Don't even with me right now," The large female's eyes scrunched up at the use of the ridiculous pet name "Garnet, I need you to cut open the tubes and expose the wires, don't cut too deep or you could score the wires and probably electrocute yourself." The tall darker skinned woman nodded, pushing her cop shades up her nose and coming down to her knees, knife at the ready.

"Cutting first tube"

"Anything on those cameras, Pearl?" Lars looked around from his position, keeping an eye out behind them for any enemy's trying to flank them.

"Nothing so far, not even much movement in the cell" Pearl sipped on some coffee as she gazed at the cameras. The cell was their destination, seven or so goons were in there sitting at a table, it appeared to be a meeting of some sorts, one of the lofty dogs walked around the table and occasionally pointed at a chart on a wall. It's like they didn't hear Jasper stomp the floor in.

"Second tube" Peridot was watching Garnet's cam with curiosity, the continence of the plastic tubes was immense, lots and lots of little wires all bunched together and tightly wound. Most of these were suspension, they helped with the building's structure. Finally, the thick black material was pulled away gently from the second tube, exposing a more colorful set of wires.

"Hold up Garnet..." Peridot leaned in closer to her computer, examining the little lines before turning to the blueprints that were placed on the surface between her station and Pearl's "Red and Yellow..."

"Red and Yellow?" Pearl and Garnet said at the same time, though Pearl turned fully to see what Peridot was doing.

"Those are the wires that power the hall they are in now and the ones in the cell!" Pearl exclaimed with a grin "Ready your flashlights kids. Jasper, Greg, and Lars, get ready to move in-"

"Amethyst, get defensive, we'll need you to hound them. They may try to bail out the back" The chunky woman nodded, setting her cup of coffee down in a cup holder as she sat behind the wheel, watching and listening. Garnet looked to her team, the knife set and ready to break the wires when given signal. The air thick, hearts beating hard behind their badges.

"Are we ready?" Garnet had seen shit with this team before, but every instant could very well be the last time she would get to see this team alive. Everyone nodded, even Pearl and Peridot.

Just down this hall, the room called Cell was located just behind a closed door. Jasper would be first to charge down this hallway and break down the door, flashlight and gun drawn. Behind her would be Greg and Garnet, guns and lights drawn. Lars would bring up the rear, still prepared to defend their flanks and provide cover fire.

"GOOOOOO" Amethyst broke the silence and Garnet flicked her wrist. Lights out. Cameras in these arias also went down, now the only way to keep track of the team was through the vest cams and microphones. Pearl looked to Peridot's computer to see the spastic lights flying around the corridor as the team ran, heavy footfalls in their ears.

"Do you think they'll be alright..?" Pearl's voice was like the wind, light and brisk, she sounded worried, and she had every right to be. Peridot turned her head to her fellow technician and offered her a little smile as they heard Jasper kick the door in.

"Maybe.." She wouldn't lie, not to Pearl. No one knows how this mission will play out "I would say they have a 94.5% of completing the mission without casualties. We'll have to fight off Jasper's bragging and gloating rights longer than this mission will take place-"

"There's no one in here-"

"What?" Pearl and Peridot both looked to the computer with wide eyes, the lights danced around an indeed, empty room. A single lone chair sitting in the middle of the floor.

"The hell..?" Lars walked up to the chair and aimed his light down at it "Uh guys...?" The light was a bit harsh for the camera's focus as everyone come to look at it, when all of their cameras did focus, four different screens all reflecting the same image of that chair. Someone had written on it in blue sharpie.

Peridot felt her heart hit her seat and her jaw drop-

E A T  
S H I T

"It's a trap! Get out of-" Pearl's words were cut short when the van's door swung open and a person wearing an old potato sack with eye-holes as a mask stepped inside, pointing a rifle at them.

"Not another word" Both the technicians blinked at the new presents, their breaths stuck in their throats. Another person hopped in the driver's seat and bent over, hot-wiring the car easily. Pearl knew instantly that the gun was an AK47, It was common and rather easy to get on the street, she also knows what it does to targets, but she didn't want to think about what it could do to her or her comrade in the back of this van, at point blank. When the vehicle roared to life, the person pointing the gun at them yelled to the other whom nodded and began to drive off quickly, the speed causing the open side door to slam shut and make the two frightened officer's jump.

Potato-bag-gun-buddy dug around in a pocket for a second before pulling out two long white objects and tossing them in the direction of Peridot, who glanced at them, not taking her eyes off the person in front of them for very long "You, put both your weapons on the floor, tie the other, then tie yourself" The blond nodded almost too quickly, looking to Pearl before moving to disarm the red-head, putting Pearl's government issued handgun on the floor between them and the assailant, her own gun coming to rest beside it's twin. Gathering the objects that were tossed in her direction quickly, not making eye contact with the bagged person. Zip-ties. The objects were zip-ties.

Pearl breathed heavily before turning her back to Peridot slowly, bringing her hands behind her so she could be restrained without argument, the shorter tech complied and followed through with the order. Once she had tied Pearl, she tied herself, using her teeth and tightening the zip-tie around her wrists in front of her.

Only when the girls were restrained did their captor move foreword with a hand, taking the guns and opening a side door before tossing them out and shutting the metal door again. Leaning foreword again, this time the being plucked their microphones from their ears and safely pressing a button to turn them off, placing them into a pocket for safe keeping. They continued to drive like this for what seemed like hours, no sense of direction or even much feel for the road, they all just drove in silence. The van had no windows in the back aside from the little one leading to the driver's cab, through it they could see that the night was creeping up into the sky slowly, darkening the clouds.

"What are you going to do to us?" Pearl couldn't take it any longer and attempted a question at their captor whom only lifted a single gloved finger to about the mouth aria of the bag with a quiet 'Shhh'

They were going to die.

They were going to be tortured, then they were going to die.

Peridot's head swam with these thoughts, sure, in the ages of her early twenties, she personally lead a very under productive life that mainly consisted of video-games and junk-food like a dumb kid, she was probably more than expendable aside from her vast knowledge of electronics and what not, but Pearl had a life to live. She was moving up in the ranks, learning quickly, expecting another pay raise, her cat was pregnant, and she was happy. Jesus she was only twenty-four! It wasn't fair!

Suddenly the van turned and went down a gravel road, the interior of the vehicle shook with the rocks under the tires, spilling the half drank cups of now cold coffee and cans of half-flat onto the computers and the floor. The short blond could have cried watching her computer fry before her eyes, sizzling and promptly shutting off, leaving the small space extremely dark. Something in the atmosphere changed when the room went dark, there was a grunt then a loud crash followed by several ear-splitting bangs.

Pearl had launched herself at the captor whom in turn fell backward into some equipment, finger squeezing the trigger of the gun as a reflex. The person took a few hard headbutts from the cop before Pearl was kicked off the trigger-happy thug, crashing into the back of the van beside Peridot once again.

"Try it again and the thing closest to tomorrow you'll be seeing is the street lights from the bottom of the river!" With that there was an angry growl from the person, then a loud and heavy thud as the butt of the gun connected with Pearl's head, hard. Knocking the girl out instantly. Peridot heard the officer fall limp against the cold metal wall of the truck, Pearl's form crumpling and sagging to the floor. The blond was wide eyed at this moment, in a state of panic that rendered her immobile "Same applies to you"

"Wh- What...?"

"Do anything funny, and I will kill you" Peridot deadpanned, all the color leaving her face and suddenly the strong need to throw-up became relevant, but she was too stunned to even turn her head much less louse her lunch.

This is how it was, for a few more hours. Sitting in the dark with no idea where they were or where they were going, and a gun pointed at her head. The smell of blood in the air-

Wait blood?

Maybe Pearl had broke the bastard's nose with those headbutts, that would be nice to see.. or maybe the bastard shot Pearl when the gun went off. She turned her head to where she knew Pearl was laying, trying to hear if the other girl was breathing. She was.

The van slowed to a stop, the driver exiting the vehicle and coming around to open the side door "What happened Boss? I heard shots"

"The fair-skinned bitch jumped at me" The one known as 'Boss' moved a hand at the two cops, more so at Pearl "Carry that one to the Medic's lounge, be sure she gets the best bed" those little black eye-holes looked into Peridot's soul as the next words were spoken "I'm taking that one to the cage"

The... Cage..?

Now getting a good look at the driver thug, that one had a potato-sack mask much like the Boss did, though this one had a blue hand print on it's face. Must be a ranking system or something. Driver-bastard climbed in the back and took Pearl up into some rather large arms and lifted her easily, taking her out of the vehicle. Boss held out a hand to the blond captive, expecting the cop to comply, well... without much choice, she did. Placing her bound hands in the gloved palm of her captor but not without a squeak when she was suddenly yanked foreword toward the gunslinger. The words that left the being almost sounded outer-worldly, deathly calm, sweet even, and it made Peridot sick to her stomach-

"I have big plans for you..."

The short cop was literally dragged from the van by the wrists, falling out of it and landing on her face in the dirt with a strangled noise, her captor stood back and watched the blond get back to her feet with a struggle, spitting dirt and small rocks as she did. Her vision went white as she tried to look around, It wasn't bright out here, but it was still brighter than the back of the van that she'd been stationed in all day. Shaking her head, she cleared her vision enough to see the Boss conversing with a few other potato-sack masked thugs, all of them with blue hand prints on the faces of the bags. The others nodded at something, probably an order, before moving to the vehicle. The aria around them was dust and dead shrub as far as the eye can see, were there any deserts outside the city? Just how long did they drive? Where even is this place?

"They are going to strip the van, any and all electronics are going to be scrapped and salvaged. They will also destroy any tracking devices or anything that could look like a tracking device" Peridot swallowed hard "You... 5t, follow me"

5t?

Oh, her number and position! The little green symbols on her vest! Great, now this is her name.

The being turned from her and started walking toward a large building that looked almost like a bunker. Massive thick grey walls more than likely made of metal and concrete built into the side of a cliff face. Huge circular door that rolled to the left with a grinding/screaming metallic noise, revealing an entrance, It looked like it could only be opened from the inside and probably by some huge mechanism. This building must have been made for the impending nucular attack the USA was fearing about sense the development of the warhead.

Peridot made a move to follow the other, seeing as her options were limited. She couldn't exactly run away with nowhere to go and no direction, she'd be gunned down before she could turn her head, so following Boss was it for now, but before she could try, her leg suddenly gave out- no... It was like it wasn't even there in the first place. She just fell. Face first into the dirt like she had been moments ago.

Confusion and panic ran through her veins as she laid there with wide eyes for a moment, the Boss turning to her to see what the noise was about. The blond sat up and looked down at her legs, what she seen nearly made her pass out on the spot.

Her left knee... didn't exist. In it's place was a huge bloody hole torn in the fabric of her pants, a bullet had connected with her leg. Red muscle matter dripping heavily with blood and in some places, the top of her Tibia could be seen. The Patella was nowhere to be found, likely blown out by a bullet. Her right leg had a heavy and deep scrape on her inner calf, another bullet grazed her there, but that was nothing compared to her left leg.

How did she not notice this before? Sure, she was in a panic and in the middle of a massive adrenalin rush at the moment it happened, but how does one not feel getting shot in the knee? Suddenly, upon seeing the wound, the pain raced through the blond like electric fire. Like becoming aware of the situation had brought it all back. Well, now she knows who's blood she was smelling.

"Hmn... this is unfortunate.." The Boss sighed, eyeing Peridot through the mask as the small woman silently screamed into the air, hands gripping her hair in disbelief and anguish as her back arched off the ground, the pain consuming her fully until her vision faded to black. Peridot fell limp against the hard dusty ground.

With a sigh, Boss strapped the gun over a denim clad shoulder and strode briskly to the blond as if watching the cop wither in pain before passing out didn't have an effect on the being. An easy heave was made and Peridot was carried inside the vault-like building bridal style, the Boss taking the same path the other thug had taken Pearl. Looks like it's two for the Doctor, Boss would have to keep a close eye around the Medic lounge to be sure no one would try anything with these new play things.

"The hell did you do to that one?" A light, slightly gruff, but still very female voice sounded from across the way, a taller, older woman garbed in a white lab-coat and thin glasses had exited the room Boss was heading to probably to retrieve medical supplies "You went into town to get Tech, instead you come back with a skinny knocked out ginger and..." a pause for brief examination of the new patient "..a cannon-fodder collage student?"

"They are Tech. Tech cops"

"Look at them, Boss! They are little girls, i'm sure if you asked nicely they would have practically followed you home!" This person, clearly medical personnel, continued to grumble about the Boss being a big brute and took the girl from the masked being gently "Pistol whip one with an AK, shoot the other one in the knees... God forbid we send you out to get pizza next!"

"Shut up and do your damn job, Sardonyx. No one want's to listen to your shit especially me" Sardonyx, bit her tongue and turned on her heel, taking the blond into the lounge without another word. Boss groaned, leaning on the wall beside the doors, looking down the hall that lead to the bathrooms and other facilities. Judging by today's events, It might be beneficial to change attire into something more comfortable, the girls won't be awake any time soon and if they do, someone will always come tell Boss. Making leave down this hall, the bagged being hung a left into the unisex bathroom, walking up to the sink and removing those god awful thick gloves.

These hands were blue. Or rather the veins under the very thin skin were blue, under those blue veins, dark green and purple ones could be seen as well, running up and down long fingers. Anything but bone-like, but not muscular fingers, almost elegant, perfect for dancing around the trigger of a gun, pulling a pin, or planting a plastic explosive.

Next to come off was this gun, that was laid against the wall gently, in arms reach should a situation arise. A thumb carefully grazed over an indentation in the gun almost lovingly, a carving in the wood of the front grip, the name "Rose" under a warm, blue thumb pad. This was the name of a great woman whom passed the gun down to a new leader when she was gunned down wrongfully. That woman, Rose, died with this gun in her hands.

The blue denim jacket was removed next, reveling a crimson shirt and an old police vest, likely stolen off a cop once upon a time. The numbers and letters, 77ss present in dark blue over the left breast. With the jacket now thrown onto the counter beside the sink, Boss looked to the reflection, admiring the shirt and vest combination, this shirt did little to suppress the awkward color of the skin that the jacket hid though, that same blue-ish color that these hands consisted of also ran up these lean arms, veins riddling close under the surface like a knit sweater of brilliant color.

"Alright, let's see what cop-hag did to your face..." Lifting both arms, Boss grasped the sides of the burlap sack and gently pulled it off, revealing a heaping mess of short light brown, super wavy hair, the sack having really done a number on it. After a few moments of grooming and shaping this wild hair with rusty gross sink water and nimble fingers, the locks were eventually tamed into a desired shape that was sort of a trademark for the being (as if the skin tone wasn't trademark enough).

Face seemed fine, bit of a deep bruise around the right eye and some swelling, otherwise this face was just like the rest. Blue. The eyes? Yeah, those are naturally a stormy blue. Nose? Blue. Cheeks? Still blue. Even the damned freckles were blue. Those little scars across the bridge of that nose and down the chin are even blue, a darker shade, but still blue. Teeth? Well, thank god those are white, looks like they are all still in place too, could maybe use a quick cleaning though... the slender blue being that is Boss pulled back those thin cobalt lips, admiring the fine dental work for some time. When you spend your life seeing yourself like some lame camera filter, It's nice to see a change of color sometimes.

Stepping back to take an over-all look, Boss deduced that everything was fine.

She was fine.

Yes.

Boss is indeed a young lady. Probably only twenty-one or twenty-two.

"Uh, Boss?"

"Mmn?" Turning to the little voice, a small girl practically hid from her behind the door-frame, more than scared of the woman standing in front of the mirror whom was just casually checking herself out.

"Sard- uh.. I- I mean, Doctor said to tell you that cop 6t was..." The darker skinned kid trailed off as the blue being perked up a bit.

"Ah, she's awake! Thank you for the information, Connie. I'll be on my way soon" She dismissed the 'Connie' with a nod, to witch the tan kid turned tail and ran down the hall and around the corner, more than likely to join the other kids in the observatory.

"So much for a change of cloths" She slipped the jacket back on her shoulders, placed the gloves in a pocket, tucked the mask comfortably into the back pocket of her beat-to-shit tattered jeans, and slung Rose over her shoulder before making her way back to the lounge. Mind you, the pace was only called a lounge because that's exactly what it was. It was basically a room with glass walls made to have parties in and relax with a good book, they unfortunately had a huge outbreak of a nasty virus once and that turned the lounge into a big medical station to help all the sick people, It's been that way ever sense.

Walking by the glass windows, Boss looked into the room as she went, the thin cop was indeed awake, talking with Sardonyx whom placed an ice-pack on her head where the gun had struck her.

"Where is Peridot? What did you guys do to her?" The Doctor looked confused by the cops questions, jotting down some things on a clipboard.

"If you mean 5t, shes just over there behind the blinds" She motioned to a section of the room divided by sheets of fabric, lights can be seen through the fabric as well as shadows of other Doctors moving around. Boss also looked to the blinds, curiosity in her eyes as she tilted her head.

"She gonna be alright? She did louse a lot of blood..." The blue woman almost sounded worried, no, she didn't want to louse what she worked so hard to obtain, but it's not like she could have done much. Shit happens.

"B- BLOOD?!" Pearl was hysterical now, eyes wide with full on panic "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?"

"Now now, there is no need to shout. We can hear you just fine. Yes Boss, 5t will be fine. The young woman is quite the trooper" Pearl looked from the Doctor, then to the blue woman, then back to the Doctor before realization smacked her in the face. She slowly turned her head to the only other person in the room that wasn't a doctor or on a medical bed, eyes the color of a robin's egg full of disbelief before they narrowed into slits at the girl.

"You... Your their "BOSS"?! Wh- What?" The woman almost looked like she was going to louse her marbles "Wait... You knocked me out, then you shot Peridot!"

"Uh, no. Actually. I shot her, then I knocked you out" What? It's the truth "Didn't shoot her with intention though, I planned to take you both without such complication, but that is... obviously not how it happened"

Pearl looked stunned before remembering that shots were fired when the lights went out, poor Peridot was just an unlucky person in the wrong place at the wrong time. The doctor touched her shoulder and gave the shaking cop a gentle smile

"Hey, would you like some water? I assure you, 5t- uh... Your little friend, will be just fine." the tech nodded, bringing her knees up to hide her face in as the Doctor turned to fetch a small cup for the girl.

"Why... Why did you bring us here..? Why us?" her voice quivered with fresh hot tears and her body racked with quaking sobs waiting to escape. For some reason, seeing her like surfaced something in the slender being, making her stride to the bed quickly and sit with the distressed woman "What do you want from us..?" Pearl didn't look up as the other came near an didn't budge when she sat, but she did move when she felt Boss place a hand on her shoulder.

"Because, 6t. You and 5t are exactly what I've been looking for. Very intelligent humans with high status among civilian ranks. People will pay big money to get you and the other back, but no amount of money could buy you. You both are priceless."

"So.. we are held against our will without ransom.."

"Correct." A smile crept up onto the blue woman's face before her storm eyes grew dark, watching the fat tears spill down the other's slightly flushed face

"What... What are you going to do to us..?"

"I'm going to break you both. Not to the point of death or making you wish you were dead, nooooo... I'm going to break you, and when you heal, you're going to beg to be broken again and again. You will bend to my every whim, and you cave to my every need" This voice becoming more and more sticky sweet, dripping with a thick foul flavor that sent pinpricks of cold fear down the red-head's spine, making the little hairs on her arms stand up with goose-bumps.

"Th- Then.. W- What do y- you wa... want from us..?" 6t could barely speak, her mouth having gone ridiculously dry as she listened to the blue being and watched those swirling eyes become nearly black in color, paralyzing her on the spot. Boss leaned closer to the frightened woman with a face-splitting grin until she was merely an inch or so from the shaking girl before laying a precise blue hand on her flushed damp cheek.

"I want everything you have to offer" then without warning, she closed the distance between them, dragging out a long, slow, slick lick with a navy blue tongue from the base of Pearl's jaw to the upper portion of her cheekbone, tasting the salty tears and further filling the other woman with a sense of dread. The flavor of the other's sadness and fear made Boss shiver with something akin to excitement, her dark eyes sparkled with her smile as she licked her lips and pulled away from the now painfully still Pearl. Giving a light chuckle, the brunet stood and stretched looking to the sheets that hid 5t from view curiously.

"Here is your water, I see the Boss has already filled you in as to why you and your friend are here, I'll just leave the water here for when you obtain the motor skills to drink" Sardonyx placed the cup of water beside the woman before walking around the bed to stand beside the shorter woman "Excited to see them in action? I know I ammm!"

"Mmn, you have no idea" Boss's voice was back to it's usual stone-emotion grace and her eyes were also returning to their natural smokey blue color "When is the soonest 5t should be functional?"

"Hmn, maybe about a day or so. Her blood-type is O+, so we have her hooked up to some inexpensive plasma right now-"

"Will she walk?"

"Erm... Probably not.."

"Why." That wasn't a question.

"W- Well, It's hard to walk without a Patella and all the muscle that was around the aria are well... gone. We don't exactly have the equipment to make and fit a knee implant much less replicate anything to compensate for the amount of tissue lost.." This made Boss sigh and close her eyes, what a costly accident...

"Amputate it"

"Excuse me?"

"I said amputate it. We'll fit her with a prosthetic, at least then she will have the mobility of a human and not like a small car"

"A- Alright... You are the Boss."

"Damn right I am," with that being said, Sardonyx scuttled over the the blinds before disappearing behind them to discuss with the other doctors about the final decisions. A long yawn from Boss before she decided it was time to take her leave back to her quarters, she informed a nurse before she left that if anything were to come up about the new tech, she was to be told as soon as possible, either someone could come to her quarters, or a representative could personal overhead her. The nurse nodded before hurriedly getting back to work, leaving the Boss to go as she pleased.

"Doctor..?" Pearl spoke up as soon as Boss was out of the room, her body still shaking. She assumed the doctor heard her, as a shadow behind the sheets stopped moving before coming out and into view, a mask over her mouth and nose from the operation that was commencing and that clipboard in her arm as usual "I'm never going to see my family and friends again.. am I?"

"I'm sorry, 6t... You more than likely will not" Sardonyx removed her mask with her words before coming to stand next to the other woman "Most of us haven't seen the sun, trees, or even grass in the entire time we have been here"

"Did she abduct you too? How long have you been here?"

"She didn't 'abduct' me, I was born here and my parents came here by will to work and live"

"What? Why? I mean, no offence, but this place is less than great and you work for a monster." That made the Doctor cringe and look down at her writing or a few moments

"I... well we, the majority that live here, make do with what we have. We get a house over our heads, food and plenty of water, jobs, and plenty of space to go about our daily lives. People from all over come to this place for work, living, and constant safety" Sardonyx lifted her eyes from her read, now looking to the door that the blue woman had left through "Boss... She's a bit hard, very cynical, and down-right evil a lot of the time, but she's got a sense of place about her. She's a good strong leader despite the things she went through for us, she does everything in her power for us and more, this colony really looks up to her. I would personally appreciate it if you didn't call her a Monster."

"O- Oh... I'm sorry. So, she runs everything?" Pearl was a bit calmer now despite a blush from offending the older woman, talking with someone was taking a lot of the stress off her shoulders, she moved to grasp the cup of water before she realized her hands were still bound behind her back "Erm.. do you think you could untie me?"

"That I can do" pulling a scalpel from a surface and returning to the red-head, she peacefully cut the offending zip-tie, allowing the former cop the ability to use her hands effectively once again before handing that cup of water to her, Pearl took the cup with a nod in thanks "Yeah, I'd say Boss runs everything. Sense the fall of Rose, Boss took the position because she was always Rose's right-hand-man!"

"Wait, who is Rose and what happened to her?"

"Rose was our Overseer. She handled all governmental transactions and kept the peace here. She was a grand individual, everyone loved her and respected her. She took Boss under her wing when Boss needed it most and supported the little blue tyke-" Suddenly the Doctor grew very quiet, fidgeting slightly as she stood "No one knows exactly what happened to her, except for Boss... People say Boss watched two police helicopters gun Rose down after she figured out something big, the government seen Rose as a threat suddenly and destroyed her in front of the young kid. After the choppers were done and left, Boss crawled on her hands and knees from the wrecked car that Rose had shoved her into to hide her from the fuzz. Gosh... Boss had to be maybe nine or ten at the time, she looked up to Rose and wanted to be like her one day. They had quite a bond, you know, Rose being more of a mother figure to Boss than her own mom..."

Realizing she was getting a bit off topic, she cleared her throat before continuing "Anyway, she crawled from the wreckage, walking the short distance through the smoke and dust to stand over what was left of the colony's grand overseer. There was no body left to Identify, she was literally reduced to ground beef, bones, entrails, hair, cloths... everything was just bloody mash. Everything destroyed, but her gun remained in tact if only covered in blood and slightly battered from the bullets."

"The same gun Boss is walking around with?"

"Yep. That's Rose's gun. Some people also say, that aside from the gun... the only part of Rose that was in-tact, was her severed right hand. Still gripping the gun, index finger still itching to pull the trigger even after death"

"My god..." Pearl cringed, If these were just roomers, she didn't want to hear the real story "Explains a bit as to why Boss is... well.." Sardonyx shook her head

"There is more to Boss than just that"

"Huh?"

"There is more to all of us besides just what happened to Rose.. I guess I should tell you now, otherwise you might not enjoy finding our later" the former cop watched the other woman with careful eyes, ready to absorb some serious information. Sardonyx took a few moments to prepare herself before turning to the other fully.

"Boss... Isn't exactly human"

"Is that why she's blue? She's an alien or something?"

"No, she's blue because she was introduced to nucular radiation as a child, It fried the melanocytes in her skin that would produce normal human skin-tones. She's not so much blue as she is clear. The blue is the stuff under her skin"

"Gross..." knowing she was looking at a living human petri-dish when she seen Boss was a bit un-nerving to know now "..wait.. Introduced to NUCULAR radiation? What the actual hell?"

"The only price for living here is the ones that are born here are to become a subject to radiation. That was the deal between the government and the founders of this place. The feds got copies of all records pertaining to the study of radiation and Inhabitants got free living. So as long as we turn out records, we aren't a threat to the government, just a side project" This made Pearl's heart sink, so kids were being pumped full of radiation here because the government needed some live human guinea-pigs?

"What logic do these studies even prove? What are they working to achieve?"

"They want to develop a human whom is immune to the radiation produced by a nucular bomb, or well, at least one with the least amount of side effects"

"You.. you said you were born here.."

"I am also a subject to radiation, if that is what you are implying"

"You didn't turn out.. blue...?"

"No, I didn't" with a shy sigh, the doctor put down the clipboard and looked Pearl in the eyes "Don't freak out, 6t-" she began unbuttoning her lab-coat slowly, this put the cop on edge, expecting a big mouth on her stomach with rows and rows of sharp teeth, another human jutting out of her abdomen, or a third eye on her chest. She was pleasantly surprised when none of the thoughts were true, instead, another set of hands parted the now fully unbuttoned coat, revealing a whole new set of arms much like the first pair, but coming out of her sides just above the waist "I'm not exactly human either" the new arms seemed fully functional as they placed their hands on her hips, the upper arms placing hands low on her waist.

"...Well..." the red-head was genuinely interested in these new appendages, her eyes taking them in as a whole. They didn't look out of place on the Doctor, nor did they seem to hamper any mobility. It just seemed so natural..

"Myself and Boss are pretty lucky, some others didn't take kindly to the radiation and well.. they aren't exactly the best bunch to be around today,"

"Just.. exactly how were you 'introduced'?" 6t looked up at the woman whom was folding the second arms around herself and began buttoning the coat back up.

"It was diluted into a jell-like mass and injected into my spine"

"Ow"

"Naaaah, only hurt the first time."

"Do you know how Boss was introduced..?" She needed to know all she could about the blue woman, that being had filled her to the brim with dread, kidnapped her, and blown out her friends legs, so she seen it best to gather as much information as possible.

"I do know, yes.." She sounded like she was beside herself with the situation, if she should tell the tech something so personal about their leader, but if it would help the woman better understand what Boss went through, she was willing to speak. "Like you might have figured out, Boss was born here. Both her parents worked for the government before moving here. Her father a scientist and her mother an agent of the Secret Service. I'm nearly positive those people had a kid so they would have something to..." She shook her head with the thought, those people weren't fit to be parents at all, just remembering them made Sardonyx sick to her stomach "Anyway.. When Boss was born, they ran flame-retardant tubes down her throat and into her lungs to act as a snorkel, then they filled a vat with water and heated it directly with a concentrated liquid form of radiation"

Eyes wide open and jaw hung low, Pearl listened. Her hands beginning to shake and a cold sweat had made them clammy. She was piecing together what those horrible people did, and she could barely believe that someone could do that to their own child.

"They boiled that sweet baby alive. Once a day, for the majority of her life. Eventually she became blue."

"Oh my stars! Who could do such a thing?!"

"They did it for science, and they got away with it too, well, for about thirteen years.. Boss couldn't take it anymore and well.. she just snapped one day." The doctor sat down on the edge of the bed, as she continued to speak "When her mother took her to the vat one morning for the daily cooking, she pulled her mother in with her, bringing her under the water and keeping her there until the woman became motionless, lifeless, Boss let her sink to the bottom of the vat before dragging herself up and out of the rolling, heated water. Her eyes were glowing white hot with something unearthly and every breath in that tube sounded garbled, thick, and wet. The father was stricken with fear at the sight of his naked blue daughter closing in on him, hunched, heat and steam radiating off her small from the toxic bath. She strangled him with the same pipe she pulled from her own throat"

"This... How... You describe it so vividly, It's like you were there"

"I was not, unfortunately, I did clean up after it all though. Security cameras in that sector caught everything on tape, and I must have watched it hundreds of times"

"Did you expect Boss to snap like she did..?"

"Mhmn. We were all sore after Rose, but Boss stayed strong for the people, even if she was living through hell every day. She... suffered more so mentally, I guess, her and Rose went way back, training with Rose and being around her was her escape from her psycho parents, without an escape, she eventually just exploded. The people don't like what she did, but they dislike what her parents did more. After all that, we sorta have a mutual understanding and respect for the young leader."

"...I see.." a pregnant silence passed between them before the doctor stood once more, adjusting her coat and picking up her clipboard.

"I'm going to return to supervising 5t's operation, I request you get some good rest, the next time you wake, you may be awake for a very long time" Pearl nodded, she had so much more to ask the Doctor, but the woman was right, sleep was a good option and she needed it. The cop put her little cup down on the provided bedside table, having drained it's contents as she listened to Sardonyx speak. Laying back on the less than comfortable bed, she watched the Doctor disappear behind the blinds once more, thinking about how nice the Doctor is and how bitter Boss was. Everyone here has seen some shit, obviously, but holly wow.

And its no wonder Boss is a damn crazy.

AN: WOAH! Finished that chapter. Character development. Character development everywhere. Not sure what to feel about Boss yet? I like her, she's def my top favorite so far. Bad-ass Pearl was pretty awesome, jumping Boss like that and headbutting her, must have taken a lot of guts to jump on someone with a gun in the dark, I think I would have probably just shat myself and cried for my mum in that situation...  
ANYWAY, lemme know what ya thought! SEE YA NEXT CHAPTER!


	2. Chapter 2 (fixed)

AN/ HELLO GUYS! Holly cow It's been way too long, I'm very sorry about that, lots of stuff going on and I'm trying to kick some bad habits. I will tell you right now kids, addiction is a very bad thing. Anyway, HERE! Have the second chapter, It's massive. I hope this chapter helps speed things along, I feel the first chapter was a bit slow. More chapters should be up soon, though I have some art commissions to do first, those actually have a deadline that ends soon enough to make me sweat ^^''  
OOPS, MORE CHARACTERS! READ ON AND MEET THEM!

"Fuck it all!" A large fist collided with a wall. After some time of panicking at the factory due to the mission, the team piled in the undercover car and Amethyst drove them all back to the station. None of them were willing to go in the front door less than empty handed, so they hung out behind the building. Trying to pull themselves back together.

Greg looked like he was going to puke, having already lost someone dear to him whom was in the agency before, lousing two more was having very negative effects on him. Lars, who was new and didn't quite know the officers well enough, rubbed the larger man's back in slow circles as they leaned on the same wall Jasper had punched a few feet away. Amethyst groaned, sitting on a discarded box with her face in her hands.

She tried to follow the van, she tried. That van lost her in the city shortly after they broke contact with the girls and the GPS gave out shortly after that. Those last words heard over their communication pieces still weighed heavy in the hearts of the team. It wasn't the voice of either tech, the gritty and bored tone of the bean-stalk blond officer; Peridot... or the pointed and punctual flutter of their slightly taller and much more frail officer; Pearl. No...

It was the voice of a murderer.

She's heard it before from somewhere.. Perhaps from another mission or a mission log.

Not another word

"Eventually, we are going to have to go in there-" Garnet looked to her feet, putting a hand on Jasper's shoulder to stop her from abusing the wall any further, the bigger woman growled at her with a look in her eyes that flamed with rage "We need to let the superior know.." Everyone visibly cringed at this, no one wanted to be the one to let the Chief know just how badly they failed, getting a lecture from her was the last thing they needed right now.

"Let's just leave" Kicking something heavy with a boot, the brute of a woman turned to them, Garnet's hand falling from her shoulder "Jack a police car or two and go looking for them, I mean, we know the general direction that they went-"

"We know a direction, but we don't have any idea what we could be up against-"

"-WHO GIVES A SHIT"

"Jasper." The lead officer snapped at the fuming woman, no one needed to hear and come looking for them "Let's think rationally here. The agency doesn't need to louse any more officers right now-" with a heavy sigh, Jasper turned her gold eyes to the ground, her hair hiding her expression as Garnet spoke "-and besides, they could have an army waiting for others to show up in a rescue attempt. We need to do our homework on the mission and the situation before we make our move"

"So... we just go in and tell Chief what happened. It's not like we could tell it was a set-up, and the computers always foreword any and all information to the agency servers first thing, right? So we can go off what the cameras seen before the van left and what the microphones heard, maybe they could tell us details we missed!" The one time Lars actually opens his mouth, is actually probably the most inelegant assurance they have heard out of someone that wasn't a tech officer. Amethyst nodded and looked to the kid, brows knitted together.

"I agree with slim, one step at a time guys"

"Right.. Let's face the music and get this show on the road" Greg cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair, moving to support himself without the wall. Garnet was the first to nod and begin the short walk around to the front of the building, her team following close behind. Their chins held high as their eyes hard, but still slightly glassy. Pushing the door open, the tall officer stood to the side, holding the door open for the others, Jasper being the last to enter, the muscles under the skin of her arms still tense, making her shake slightly.

"We'll find them, Jasper" Garnet assured the other woman quietly as she let the door shut behind them soundlessly. Believe it or not, Jasper and the blond tech went way back, before high school even. They were neighbors for a long time, granted Jasper was always bigger than the other girl and picked on her for years about it, chasing her with bugs and putting ice down the back of her shirt, but the shorter had a fire-cracker personality and was witty as fuck. They went to different collages for a while, Peridot moved out of town to follow her dream of being a video game designer, and Jasper went on to join the military, boot-camp was her highlight, but she bailed. Deciding being sent over-seas to get shot at wasn't something she was looking foreword to, so she tried out for the police agency. That's when she met and trained with Garnet. The tall, darker skinned woman found Jasper to be a bit difficult to handle at points, she had a bit of a thick skull and often jumped into things without a second thought, but her will was strong and she put everything she had into every mission.

"Guys! What happened out there?" A person emerged from a cubical, walking up to the two much taller girls. Nice light blue dress-shirt on with a belt and dark pants, she had shoulder-length blond hair and very fair skin. This young woman wasn't tall enough to make it out on a team, but she was perfect to sit in a cubical and take calls "our trackers went hay-wire before everything had gone to hell"

"Wait what?" Lars spoke up, halting in his accent.

"Well, you see, first we lost audio feed, then we lost visual on you guys, and suddenly we couldn't track anyone at all! It's like you all just fell off the face of the earth!"  
This cop shifted some of the papers in her arms as she looked to Lars "Chief herself was almost out after you guys" So much for all the information getting forwarded to the agency, if everything went down, then maybe their video feed and audio didn't go through after all.

"Where is she anyway?" Garnet spoke up, glancing at the young woman.

"She's in her office" The blond looked down at her papers nervously, talking about their commander made her feel uneasy, like the woman would ominously materialize from nowhere behind them as they spoke about her "if I were you though, I'd knock first"

"Right.. Thanks Sadie"

"Good luck guys.. ya need it."

Standing.

Standing outside the thick Oak and safety-glass door that reads in dark bold letters "Chief Diamond", the team can hear the footfalls of the tall woman inside, she must be pacing around with her brows knit together as she rubbed her temples. A massive headache having formed from all the shit that's happened today.

Garnet sighed and raised a fist, gently knocking on the door. The foot steps stopped for a moment before a smooth but hard voice sounded from behind the door "Enter"

So they did. Garnet gently turned the handle of the door and pushed it open. The woman everyone feared with reason sat behind her desk in her big deep brown leather swivel chair as they filed in one at a time, hard yellow eyes looked every individual up and down before she promptly stood. Chief Diamond was garbed in her usual attire, pressed black dress coat with the sparkling gold police force crest pinned on her breast proudly, casual cream undershirt, black tie, black pencil skirt, but she had the same government issued boots like the ones the team wore. She must have been preparing to head out, that could be very true according to what Sadie said.

"No?" Leaning to her right to see around and between the other people in the room, Chief silently panicked, though her composure looked only mildly confused "no.. No. No no!" she pointed her index finger at Garnet, then to Jasper, then Lars and finally Greg "One, Two, Greg.. and Four?" Her gaze turned to the open door, waiting for the rest of the team to walk in "Oh, are Five, Six, and Amethyst parking the van?" Just then Amethyst walked in, a powdered doughnut half-stuffed into her mouth and a cup of coffee in hand.

"Ey Chiff- weh gotta problm" Lars gave the shorter woman a look, wondering how on earth this woman made it on the team at all. Having gained everyone's attention, Amethyst took the doughnut from her mouth, the white powder lining her thick lips and had fluffed down onto her chin "Ya see, the mission was a hoax. The bastards tricked us and stole our van with both our tech-girls inside."

The taller said nothing, she only stood watching Amethyst with a blank expression for a few minutes. Processing the new information. Garnet started to silently wonder if they just broke their boss, but she was brought from her thoughts when Diamond moved from her spot over to the door, looking over her shoulder at the team with the same neutral expression as she ran a hand through her blond, slightly mussed hair, attempting to fix it up into it's usual position perhaps.

"The meeting room has more chairs than my office" everyone took the hint and followed the taller woman out. Jasper nearly directly behind the even taller woman still obviously lost in thought "I need you all to tell me exactly what happened. The computers here are still down, and I need information. You-" She pointed to a skinny, dark skinned lady with short dark hair whom looked a bit surprised at being called to attention by the Chief from her position behind the copy machine "Grab a pen and paper, you are going to take notes" The startled woman nodded, scurrying off to gather supplies as ordered to do so.

The meeting room was quite large, lots of chairs stationed around a wide table and a small TV on the far wall, probably for power-point presentations. The officers all took a seat as instructed by a wave of a hand as the girl from before nervously stepping into the room with a pen and pad in hand, shutting the door behind herself.

"I need to know, absolutely everything, about this mission." Spoke the lead official as she sat down across from the team, eyeing them with an almost predatory look.

After a few moments of silence, It was Jasper to cut the tension with her raspy voice "We got set up" her eyes were downcast onto the table as she spoke "I thought we had this in the bag, but it turns out the bag was over our heads and-"

"Bags..." Everyone blinked at Amethyst for a moment, she having finished her food on the way here and was working on that cup of coffee. What a statement, cutting off Jasper with a simple word. Amethyst looked to Garnet for a moment before putting down her cup "don't you remember the last words, Garnet?"

"I do, yes.. We all do."

"Yes, but didn't the voice sound maybe a little bit familiar to you?" To this, the darker skinned officer looked down at her hands before nodding slowly.

"It's a voice I'd sooner forget.." She looked up to their superior from and pushed her cop-shades up her nose "I have reason to believe our fellow officers were abducted by members of-" she choked up and looked back down, her body slumping foreword as her muscles tensed up, a gesture associated closely with vomiting, but no chunks were blown "-Bunker 3020... Also known as The Crimson Bombshell, or TCB for short.."

Diamond's eyes went wide as she leaned back in the chair, taken aback by the information "No..?"

"The voice was that of Lapis Lazuli; self proclaimed 'Boss'. Rose Quartz Is their leader-"

"Was. She was their leader" The Chief put a hand through her hair and groaned "She also once worked for this agency. How do you know of this information, Garnet?" The woman in question looked surprised before sighing deeply, her full lips pressing into a hard line.

"I was one of them."

"WHAT?" Amethyst turned her head to look at her fellow officer so quickly the others feared her head would have spun off her shoulders. At the question, Garnet remained cool and collected. Bringing a hand up slowly, she took the shades between her fingers with care and removed them gently, setting them onto the table in front of her. Everyone's heart stopped in their chests when she pushed some of her thick curly hair out of her face and off her forehead, revealing a third eye.

"Well then..." Jasper again broke the silence as she gazed slack-jawed at Garnet much like everyone else "... Eye see what you did there"

"Just couldn't help yourself, could you Jasper" Garnet clicked her tongue with the roof of her mouth, scowling at the brute.

"This wasn't in your personal files..." Diamond's sharp yellow eyes grew into slits as she tilted her head a little at the three-eyed officer "does any of you have something else you need to show or tell me?"

"My parents went to TCB, but I ran away on the day they moved... My father managed to find me on FacePage though, he used to tell me about what it's like where he is and what not" Amethyst admits quietly as she looks to her hands "I dunno if that helps.."

"Trivalent? No shit, so you're the kid talked about!"

"What? He talked about me?"

"Yes actually, a lot. He's working as a teacher now, or... at least he did as I were there. They both miss you dearly." The stocky woman looked like she was close to tears, happy to know her parents were off being successful and happy, she was also deeply and painfully sorry she left them in such haste.

"Alright, write that down, having someone on the inside is a good advantage. Have you heard from your father recently?" Ame shook her head at the question, turning her gaze back to Diamond as the darker skinned woman from before who stood a few feet away by the door scribbling some more on her notepad with vigor.

"Haven't heard from him in years.. oh god, do you think he and mom are okay?"

"They could be... Don't try and contact him anymore unless he contacts you, then inform me of everything he tells you," Amethyst nodded in understanding "anything else?"

"I was married to Rose" Greg put in his own two cents, and to that statement, Diamond's forehead hit the table with enough force it almost knocked over Amethyst's coffee "One day, she just up and left... I guess she joined TCB?"

"Juss optn leff..?" Words muffled by the table before the tall woman sat up, fixing her shirt and coughing into a fist, regaining her hard exterior "erm.. Just up and left? Didn't say anything or leave a note?"

"Nope, nothin. No note, no call, not even her diary was around. She and everything she owned was gone with the night."

"I'm.. I'm sorry for your loss, Greg" and oh how sorry he could never begin to understand.

"Nah, It's alright.. I mean, I loved her, leaving was her choice so I just sorta accepted it" Garnet gave the man a pat on the back, things happen for the better or for the worst, Rose must have had a reason to leave.

"Uh, I hate to appear inconsiderate, I mean, I'm sorry too Greg.. like really. Daym. But uh.. What does the word "Bags" Have to do with the people that stole our friends and van?" Lars scratched the back of his neck, blushing a bit at the attention he drew to himself and that he made himself sound like a total ass, but he was genuinely curious.

"Their trademark is a burlap sack with a hand-print of the leader on it in the leader's choice color. The sacks are worn as a mask to conceal identity when they send a party out for stuff" Garnet spoke smoothly, placing her shades back on the bridge of her nose "My family was part of the trusted bunch that got to go out and what not"

"Did anyone see any of these offenders in potato sacks?" They all looked to one another and shook their heads, no.

"We were inside the building,"

"And I was around back waiting for goons to flee like spooked cockroaches."

"So.. The van and your undercover vehicle were the only means of transportation in the aria..?" Diamond looked confused now "If those were the only two cars there, how the hell did the offenders get there in the first place?"

"Perhaps they were dropped off-" Lars put in as he shrugged his shoulders, not sure how to answer the question.

"-Or the means of transportation never left the aria, I'm going to send a team out to sweep the aria and maybe get prints on doors and walkways,"

"Check the chair too,"

"The Chair?"

"My gosh Diamond, you HAVE been out of the loop, haven't you~"

"Don't you patronize me, Jasper. We lost all eyes on you guys, I had no way of knowing what was happening to you guys. Hell, all of you could have been captured or worse and I couldn't do a damn thing about it-!" Her voice climbing with heated anger at Jasper's comment, her eyes like fire lit by a thunderstorm as she glared holes into the buff woman, but her facade faltered and her voice cracked toward the end of her scolding "I- I can't afford lousing officers." Jasper is left speechless, their hard, cold, and collected Police Chief was worried about them like some mother worrying over their kids first slumber party. She cares for them.

"We... should have some footage on our vest cams that you should see then" Garnet stood up and took off her vest before walking to the small TV screen on the wall "Anyone got a USB cable on them?"

"Hell yeah, I got one!" Amethyst dug around in her pants pocket before retrieving the cord and tossing it to the taller "I want that back after though, It's the only cord I got to charge my phone with, and I won't sleep unless I get my fix of the funnies!"

"TenGag is bad and you should feel bad-"

"-Shad-up, Lars! I don't give a shit what you gotta say about it, It's hilarious!" The screen sprung to life as Garnet plugged the cord into the exposed port of the camera and the USB portion into the small TV, sifting through the cam's options to get to the play-back feature. The computers may all be down, but lucky for the team the power was still on.

"Alright, this is just the mission through my perspective, everyone might have something different, but closely similar." With that being said, she pressed the play button and put the vest on the floor, leaning it on the wall to decrease the tension on the cord, before she turned to sit at the table once again.

"W- What the..?" Vision fuzzy and the smell of bleach filled the air along with her lungs, she cringed at the harsh taste the smells put in her mouth. Everything was bright, blinding white, painfully out of focus. Peridot didn't think she fell asleep in her living room, that was the only room in the house that she could think would be this bright, must be the morning sun reflecting off the white-wash walls, or maybe she passed out writing a text document on her computer with the screen at it's highest brightness setting. She felt like she was enveloped in an animal skin blanket, everything was warm and so soft it was suffocating, but she can't seem to recall ever having any blankets this soft.

Noise.

A sudden ear-splitting high pitched shrill squeal sounded in her left ear, It was a painful noise that made her green eyes screw shut with a low groan. Everything came flooding back to her in a slow, soft beating sequence that reminded her vainly of a beating heart.

Waking up..

Feeding her dog..

Having a quiet shower..

Coffee before work..

Quick briefing with The Big Cheese and the team..

The mission..

The mission.

Her train of thought derailed right there, everything in the room becoming very clear, even behind closed eyes, every sound and smell. A clicking was heard somewhere in the room, probably someone walking around in some expensive shoes. Some sounds of various medical equipment. The shuffling of paper to the far left of her prone position.

Also, she wasn't in a thick soft blanket, she was tucked nicely into a crude hospital bed with scratchy starchy sheets, these gross sheets must be what smell so clean. Aside from the bleach, she can smell the light sent of Peaches and dirt, what an interesting combination of smells. She tried to bring her hand up to touch her face as a reflex, but her upper arm was restricted, restricted by a soft but sturdy force that radiated with heat and... breathed..?

Green eyes flew open and quickly glanced at that arm, to her surprise, she was met with a face full of bright auburn hair. Probably the source of the Peach smell "P- Pearl?"

"Mm?" The head the hair belonged to lifted enough to look at Peridot, sleepy robin-egg blue eyes took in all of the blond's face before breaking into a wide smile "Peri-" She ducked her head and lowered her voice to try and contain her enthusiasm, she didn't want to attract the attention of any doctors or nurses yet "Peridot.. how do you feel?"

"Thirsty.." She let her head fall back onto the pillow as she sucked on her tongue a little, having a massive case of cottonmouth and some seriously nasty morning breath. Pearl nodded and let go of the other woman's arm and stood from the narrow bed, leaving the blond to look around from her position only long enough to fetch a little cup and fill it with water from a sink.

"Here," the skinny woman helped the other sit up and handed her the beverage "It isn't exactly the high-class, sparkling spring water that you're used to, but it works" To this, Peridot gave a little snort and drank her water without argument. Sitting up gave her more of a visual of the room. They appear to be in a fishbowl, windows everywhere so anyone could see everything happening. The doctor must have taken notice of them, as she stood and cleared her throat, taking her clipboard up into her hands before walking to the two officers briskly.

"Well Good morning you two! Pleasant to see you both awake and breathing!" Awake and breathing? Were they supposed to be awake and not breathing? ..or not awake at all and not breathing..? "How do you feel 5t? Dizzy with any pain in your shoulders?"

"Uh.. Nah, no pain, but I am dizzy," she looked down to the cup in her hands, It was about half empty by now but she couldn't quite tell "I think I'm high?"

"That could very well be it, you are on a load of pain suppressors and antibiotics at the moment," writing some things down on her clipboard, the doctor stepped forward and gripped the edge of the blanket that covered the blond at the foot of the bed.

"W- Wait, what are you-" Peridot was uncomfortable with the proximity of the doctor and made to move away from her but stopped when the sheet was promptly thrown over so she was still covered by the blanket, but it was drawn up enough to expose her legs-

-or leg.

"Hmm.. Seems to be healing up nicely, bleeding seems to have slowed or stopped even! Still some obvious swelling, but the antibiotics should clear that up within a day or two-"

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY LEG?!" The blond shrieked in horror as she gazed upon the bandaged stump that was her leg "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH IT? WHERE IS MY LEG?!" The water was long gone by now, having been thrown in a direction as her hands went into her hair, pulling in her blind panic.

"Now now, stay calm. Believe me, there was no saving it without complications-"

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME TO STAY CALM, NO ONE ASKED ME IF THEY COULD HAPPILY CUT MY DAMN LEG OFF!"

"Please 5t, if you can't calm down I will be forced to make you calm down.." Pearl stepped forward and put a hand on Peridot's back to rub soothing circles in an attempt to calm the frightened woman, gentle words leaving her lips with the motion of her hand.

Her hand on her back? Wait.. Where was her vest? When had this been removed? Peridot looked to the woman who was comforting her gently and noticed that Pearl was also missing her vest, perhaps they were removed in the duration that they were sleeping? So probably cut off their frames.

"Deep breaths, Peridot.." Pearl's voice was comforting enough to encourage the blond to release her grip on her already messy blond locks slowly. Yelling about the limb now would be a fruitless effort, what's done is done, and her leg is gone. Speaking of yelling, all of her commotion must have been quite a noisy commotion. People of all shapes, sizes, and colors had collected behind the windows, whispering to one another and looking her- no, looking THEM up and down.

They were curious. Especially the children. They watched on in wonder and awe like they were viewing an attraction at a zoo or puppies in the display window of a pet-store. Peridot found that she felt very exposed suddenly, being in the open and viewed like this. Pearl had stopped her gentle soothing motions in favor of gripping the blond's shirt, she was also watching the people watch them.

"W- What time is it..?" The green eyed woman stuttered a little with the question, Sardonyx looked to her wrist before remembering she wasn't aloud to wear watches or jewelry on the job.

She made a disappointed noise before looking to a wall "Hmn, about 8:30 am. You slept for at least 20 hours, 6t slept less, seeing as she was up and down all night"

"6t?"

"Yes."

"I don't follow.. Who is 6t-" She stopped herself as she realized what was what "-riiiiigh, the numbers on our vests... I feel progressively dumb now."

"Don't say that Peri, it took me a moment too and I wasn't even drugged," she gave her friend a humorous pat on the shoulder and received a glare from the seated woman, Peridot would have said something witty and probably a bit insulting about being slow, but the sound of a door opening caught her attention. The two cops turned to see whom had entered as the doctor just wrote some things down again, her eyes not leaving the paper.

"I was about to send a subject to inform you-"

"No need, the yelling was enough to tell me she was awake," Pearl shrunk back slightly as Boss calmly walked up to the small group, stopping only when she was directly at the foot of the bed, her gaze set on the blonde as if no one in the room mattered at the moment besides Peridot "so, 5t. How do you fair?"

"Uh... Confused mostly. Pretty upset about my leg still."

"Ah, well don't worry about the limb, It is more beneficial to us if you can't run away anyway."

"Ah- hah.. yeah, almost forgot. Captured and shit.." The blond drew her eyebrows together and turned her eyes down to her lap, Pearl gave her a sideways glance before looking back up at the blue woman. Sense her last confrontation with the Boss, Pearl noted that this woman was a little on the short side. Maybe four inches shorter than Peri but still taller than Amethyst. Such a small slender being, but all of her is filled to the brim with pure undying evil, that much she's sure of.

"It's been a while sense you both have had something to eat, correct? I have some work to do, but let me introduce you both to your new caretakers-" at this the door makes yet another noise and two more beings walked in, one was absolutely massive and had to duck to get in the doorway.

Tall, broad shoulders, and thick torso, but those arms looked like they belonged on a different body all together. These arms being long and a bit skinny, like chimp arms almost with long fingers. Long flowing hair that seemed to be an un-natural mint green color. Hips wide and built like shoulders. Legs like thick tree trunks. This being was garbed in an over sized grey zip-front hoodie with some weird black squallier on the front, probably some street art or something, long dark sweater under the hoodie that must have been made to fit the unusual and awkward frame, and casual olive colored cargo pants. What the cops found most puzzling about the hulking being was the face. Sure the skin was a shade of sea-foam green, but those eyes were like iridescent green fire, very bright, nearly glowing. That nose looked like it had been broken many times, probably because it had been-

The being must have noticed the attention it had drawn, for it grinned at the two shrimp-like girls, revealing plenty of sharpened pointed teeth that made the girls shutter slightly, something cold gripping at their insides. Boss felt it necessary to inform them about the big looming spooky being first, seeing as the officers were so intent to examine the being so freely.

"The tall one is Malachite. She won't be talking much due to an.. interesting oral issue-" Issue? Just then, Malachite opened her mouth and let a very long, wide, and slobbery tongue flop out. It seemed like a regular human tongue, just massive and had some obvious scaring were it looked like it had been surgically reduced once or twice "-Mal. Do you mind? You are dripping." The big being was starting to drool onto the floor in mass quantities, though it's not like she could help it. Raising a thin hand up, Malachite ungracefully rolled the slick appendage back up and set it lamely back into her face with a little wine noise.

"I'll have an appointment set up for you soon sweetie! Just you wait!" The doctor, whom was now on the other side of the room sifting through a massive stack of papers called out, this made big-green nod as she used her sleeve to remove the extra saliva off her chin.

Boss looked to the mess Malachite made on the floor and wrinkled her face at it in disgust before turning to the other caretaker "And this is Su-"

"Sugilite! My name is Sugilite, I already met ya kids before, er, at least one of ya-" The new being pointed a meaty finger at Pearl with a toothy grin "-You're the ornery 6t! Holly wow, what a fighter, even with your hands bound behind your back!" Well. One doesn't talk and the other talks too much. Great.

Sugilite was built like a tank. Unlike Malachite, Sugilite wasn't nearly as tall, but she was very broad and muscular and her hands were massive. Her skin a light shade of violet and her hair was dark. Thick full lips always seemed to be grinning and showing off wide sharp teeth. She obviously dressed herself too, leather vest and a white tank-top along with some dark jeans with plenty of holes in them, and to pull off the look, she adorned some interesting designer sunglasses for some reason that could only be explained as "fashion"

"Ya both probs don't remember me, I was the driver!" Peridot scrunched up her face as she tried to remember. The ride here? Yeah, the van was stolen by these goons and they took their guns, but then there was soda and the computers, and Pearl...

Pearl?

That's right, the gunslinger in the back with them hit Pearl and knocked her out after the skinny cop jumped them when the lights went out. That masked bandit that hit Pearl... the driver, Sugilite, had mentioned a name before.. didn't she? What did Sugilite say when she opened the side door? Something about gunshots...

"Boss..." Yeah, that's what she heard. The driver called their captor, Boss. What does that even mean though? Was it code for something-?

"Yes?"

What?

"Wait... YOU'RE the Boss? The one who..? and the van with the..?" Peridot motioned to the short blue woman before motioning to Pearl and herself wildly as her brain started putting things together "What?"

"Yes. I am the Boss," just then something on her started beeping, drawing her attention from the lame blond to a black watch on her left wrist "I am also sorely late, Doctor Sardonyx, set an appointment for 5t and accompany me as soon as you can in my office please." With a flick of her wrist and a wave of a hand, she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, leaving the two massive beings to stand there with the cops in increasingly awkward air.

"Okay, 5t. Sense you seem to be healing nicely, I'll set a checkup appointment for three weeks from today!" The doctor cheerfully handed the blond cop a card with the date and times of the upcoming appointment on it. The card itself was enough to make the tech raise an eyebrow, it was thick and wide, a playing card. Ten of spades to be exact. "Ey, don't judge me. We don't exactly have a huge budget around here"

"Nah, It's cool. At least I know I can't louse this easily" Peridot felt her face heat up a little before she tucked the card away in the breast pocket of her uniform shirt. Malachite in the meantime had walked to a corner of the room and returned with a wheelchair as Sugilite gathered herself a little cup and filled it with water, the cup looking even smaller in her huge hand.

"So, we should probably take you kids out and get ya fitted, then show ya around the place some!" Everyone sorta looked to one another before both the cops sighed in defeat. They didn't have much say in what happened, and with Peridot incapacitated like she was, they couldn't do much either.

Malachite moved to the side of the bed and slipped an arm around Peridot who in turn reluctantly put an arm around the taller beings shoulders, allowing the woman to lift her gently from the bed and seat her in the wheelchair with ease. The blond looked down at herself now, seeing she still had on the same cloths she was abducted in though a leg of fabric was cleanly cut off about half way up her thy probably to make removing the leg easier. She was very pleased she hadn't crapped herself in the terror of the previous situation, otherwise this could be increasingly awkward for her. Pearl came to stand beside her fellow officer once Malachite moved to stand behind the mobile chair.

"Be gentle with them guys, they're new and confused! Don't scare them to death!" The doctor called out as the four of them disappeared behind the doors.

"So.. what exactly are you guys..?" Peridot spoke up after a few minutes of silent walking/rolling down a few hallways.

"Mnn-tenz" The voice was very low and garbled, spoken slowly, mostly through a closed mouth. Must have been Malachite's attempt at speech.

"Er.. Well you're right, Mal. For a lack of a better word, we are Mutants."

"...Mutants?" The blond blinked, thinking over the possibilities for a moment. She's seen enough spoofy zombie movies to figure something like mutated humans was possible, but she pictured them to be so much more... well she didn't know what she was expecting "You guys don't glow in the dark, do you?"

"PFFT, naaaah" The larger of them laughed a little "well maybe Mal does, but I sure as hell don't" Malachite in turn made a defensive whine noise and nudged the other woman with her elbow. "We just have some "Abnormalities" as the doctor likes to say"

"Abnormalities..? Like all of these colorful skin-tones?" Pearl had heard all this before, so she mainly focused on memorizing the directions they were going. Lots of other hallways met this main one and went into many directions, some leading to doors and others leading to steps to other floors. Eventually they came to a room with machines lining two walls and several standing free in uniform lines. A few people were standing around interacting with these machines, dumping a lode of clothes into one and or typing something on the side of another.

This must be the laundromat of this place.

Sugilite moved away from the group to examine a line of stacked small lockers that adorned one of the walls, a wide smile appearing on her face "Here, I believe this one and this one are free!" She opened two lockers that were only about twelve inches long, ten inches wide, and about waist height from the ground "These lockers are for the working class, so you can put your gear in and stuff-"

"Working class?" Pearl looked to the lockers, they were painted red and surprisingly deep for their cramped size.

"Yeeee buddy! As soon as we get you both outfitted and fed, we'll show you guys to your respective jobs!" She wiggled her eyebrows at the cops before looking them over thoughtfully "Speaking of outfits, I'll be right back" the fortress of a woman moved swiftly between some machines and vanished behind another door but not before nodding to a few innocent people who she passed by. These people didn't seem to pay the mutants in the room much attention, like they were used to seeing them daily and what not. Ey, mutants gotta do laundry too.

After a few short moments of silence, Sugilite returned with a stack of cloths in one hand for the girls "These are your default apparel, yeah, you can keep what ya got now, but these will serve as your fresh change of clothes for a few days of work until you can afford some new" she passed them to the cops gently. These cloths consisted of dark colored undergarments including underpants and sports bras, two pairs of white socks, two pairs of old dark grey pants, and two pairs of grey shirts, one shirt being long-sleeved and the other a short-sleeved V-neck. "It ain't the best, but there better than nothing or going to work in the same cloths until payday!"

"Is this also the default size?" Peridot examined the legs of the pants as well as the wast size, they might fit her, but they defiantly wouldn't fit Pearl. Peridot had developed some curves in her maturing years with hips and a rather nice butt. Unfortunately Pearl was built like a stick, slender chicken legs, thin hips, and you could use her backside as an ironing board.

"Yep, If you wanna talk sizing or custom fits for anything, just go through that door and talk to the little old lady behind the counter"

They both selected a change of the clothing, Pearl choosing to try out the V-neck shirt as Peridot decided on the long-sleeve. Their spare clothing articles were placed into the lockers and shut away. Malachite got onto her knees in front of their lockers and put a small square of masking tape over the front of each locker door, pulling a sharpie out of her hoodie pocket and writing "5t" on one and "6t" on the other.

"Feels like prison uniforms" Pearl noted out loud as she looked down at the cloths resting on her arm, picking at the hem of the shirt with her dainty fingers.

"Nah, our prisoners don't get the luxury of uniforms or cloths at all" Malachite made a series of noises before standing, with quite an amount of difficulties mind you, she then followed the same rout the broad woman had taken and stepped behind the same door, leaving the cops to look to Sugilite with slightly confused expressions. "She doesn't come to the laundromat often, so she's probably picking up a shirt too." They both nodded and sure enough, as quickly as she went in, the tall beast of a woman returned with a V-neck shirt in hand and an uncomfortable look on her long face "C'mon Mal. Let's show the kids to the den!"

The den?

Down some more halls, but not too far from the laundry room and a bathroom, was a much larger room with tall walls and pillars from the floor up to the ceiling to help keep the room from caving in. There were bunk beds in rows, all lined up neatly. This room reminded both the cops of a military base, nothing personal and nothing vain. Everyone sleeps, breaths, snores, and farts together in this big musty room.

"This will be your bedroom for a little while, until you can afford your own room or are given a room to share with someone. The rules are pretty simple but their are a lot of them, shuteye is at ten, waketime is at six, keep your bunk clean, take all of your bedding with you and keep it in your locker, no food or drink in this room, no horseplay or scandalous behavior, no littering, no loitering, no drugs, no alcohol, children must be accompanied by an adult, yada yada yada. All I can say is follow the rules and don't hide valuables in here, you kids will do fine"

"We don't get assigned a bunk?"

"Nah, It's first-come, first-serve. Ya'll probably won't sleep in the same bunk twice- OH, and 5t, If I were you I'd zip-tie or chain your chair to the bunk you choose to sleep in that night. Children around here are goofy and will probably wake up early to take your wheels out for a spin."

"Glorious"

"Ya guys see that open arch at the other end of the room?" Sugilite pointed a sausage finger at the open entry way on the far side of the room just at the end of the main row of bunks "That the showers/toilets. Don't got no mirrors in there though, half of the bathrooms around here don't unless you got your own. People keep stealing the mirrors and selling them around the place, weird, I know. I also wouldn't recommend walking in there barefoot, loads of fungous and shit, you can buy slip-skids at the laundromat to make the shower experience bearable."

"Slip-Skids?"

"Ye, the shoe that doesn't cover your foot at all and sorta flops around making a lot of noise as you walk. Don't try and run in them, that's a bad idea and isn't worth busting yourself over."

"I've just never heard anyone call them "slip-skids" before"

"It's a totally different world down here, outsider. I warn you that" the massive woman laughs before nudging the taller being "C'mon, let's let the kids get dressed in peace. We'll wait out in the hall for you guys, If ya need help er somethin, shout." With that the two interesting girls exited through the door that they came from.

"Why do you think they keep calling us 'kids'?" Peridot asked the other as she began removing her shirt after turning her chair away from Pearl, being respectful and decent. Pearl also had her back turned so she were facing away as she undressed.

"This is a good question, probably because were new here, like fresh clean innocent babies."

"Or they just like to watch us sit and be uncomfortable."

"That could be it too" Pearl half laughed at their little conversation. The moment still too strong to try and forget about. They were just plucked from reality, from a world they knew so well, a world they were loyal to and loved with people who loved them and they loved in turn. Now they have been given a new name, a new place to live, new rules to live by, and soon they would be given new jobs. Everything they thought they knew about their lives was turned on their heads by force.

"Banshee probably hates me already"

"Banshee?"

"My dog."

"You have a dog?" Pearl turned to the blond a little with a raised eyebrow as she started pulling on the drab, over-washed pants.

"Mhmn, American Bulldog," She stopped tugging at the new sock she was putting on in favor of sitting back, remembering the mushed face of her big oll puppy named after a vehicle in a video game she'd been in love with once "total slobber monster."

"Hah, adorable." The taller of the two smiled before looking down at her pants, seeing an obvious dilemma. She could probably fit a small child in these pants with her if she wanted, lucky for her, her uniform cop pants didn't fit her either, but she had a belt with those. Gathering up the discarded black leather belt, she threaded it through the loops and tightened up that massive gap. The pants were still very loose, but they wouldn't fall off her hips now.

"Do you have a pet? I can see you having like a bird or something." She finished her fight with the sock and used a nearby bunk bed to steady herself as she stood up to carefully shimmy out of the tattered pants she wore and replace them with the offered pants. Pearl only snorted at her before replying.

"No, no birds. All I have is a fat and happy tabby. One of my neighbors had a tabby cat too, so we figured we'd breed them. She actually should be about ready to pop any day now"

"Omg, the lill fwuffy babies!" Peridot's voice was a bit higher in octave as she thought about pretty little kittens. She'd had cats for the majority of her life, so she was very open and accepting to being both a cat person and a dog person.

"Yeah, the father was quite a handsome cat too, their kitties would be beautiful"

They both silently try to ignore the fact that they are never going to get to see these beloved animals ever again.

"Pearl.."

"Mm?" The taller turns to the blond whom is still using the bed as support, the way she was standing and the way the new pants laid against her gave the image that half of one leg wasn't gone and for a moment everything almost felt normal. Them both standing in a huge box that reeks of dust and mold, under ground, both girls dressed in near matching attire and look visibly worn out. Almost.

"I'm ready for this nightmare to be over."

"I know Peri.. me too." The blue eyed woman sighed and ran a hand through her fair hair before walking over to Peridot, helping her into the chair before kneeling in front of the blond, rolling up the loose pant leg for her "We'll get through this. I dunno how, but we will."

One pulling the door open and the other pushing the chair, the duo made their way into the hall and were greeted by the two mutant caretakers whom kept their word and stayed out in the hall for them. Sugilite smiled a wide smile that showed off her teeth and fist-pumped the air with obvious excitement "YEAAAS! Now we can get some grub! To the cafeteria!"

"Not so fast, Rolling Thunder. We gotta make a stop by the mat to drop off our cloths."

"...Right! To the Laundromat!"

She childishly started marching in the direction of said location, Malachite following lamely behind, seemingly tired of standing and maybe becoming a bit irritated because of it. All in all, these big lugs weren't so bad. Maybe a bit childish and rude at times, but they seem pretty decent.

Walking around in all these hallways made the blond think of ants, like the ant farms kids would have so they can watch how ants live in a colony and stuff. Makes sense, this is indeed a colony after all, and it is underground. They had agreed back at the mat to put their laundry into the same locker and would wash them together later seeing as that would save them some money and time.

Some signs on the hallway walls were highlighted to show important rooms or conjoining halls, other signs had arrows pointing down or up the hall to a destination. Looks like this hall was just one hall in the housing wing, other signs pointed out with words like "Daycare" and "Market Square" one sign in particular made their bellies growl, "Cafeteria"

"What's for eats today?" The big woman asked a little kid as he walked out from an archway, cleaning his fingers with his mouth making little popping sounds as he did so.

"Oh hey Sugilite! It's soup and chaps today and guess what, IT'S BEEF SOUP!"

"WHAT?! BEEF?"

"Yeah! It's great stuff, tastes a little off, but the cook said it was just an old cow."

"I'm just amazed It's cow at all! Thanks Steven, have a good day!"

"You too Sugi! OH- and welcome to the family guys, I'd love to stay and chat, but Connie and I are gonna hit the library to see if they have any new books in yet, so I'll catch you guys around!" the cops looked to one another as the boy ran off with a final friendly wave.

"Don't let him scare ya, that's just Steven Universe. Great kid, strong sense of justice and righteousness, just like his mum." The purple woman passed the two skinny ladies a tray before handing one to Malachite as well, the line wasn't long and they were served quickly. Oddly enough, there weren't many people in this massive semi-circle space. The whole room looked like it were outfitted to to be a 90's highway diner. Big chrome circle tables with the red glittery tops and matching stools, checkered black and white tile floor, even an old Juke-box by a bar on the far side. Neon signs hung up in places on the walls along with old movie posters and car tire rims. Hell, their were even a few girls in matching red and white pinstripe uniforms on roller-skates bustling about cleaning tables.

"Are other places here as nice as this?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. You should see the Market and the Observatory, they are both pretty great places to visit, especially in the after hours when the places aren't too busy." They all acquired a small bowl of thick looking liquid and a side of what looked like some over fried potato chips. Malachite picked out a clean booth a distance away and sat down, the others following suit. The tables were surprisingly large enough that two beefy mutants and both the cops could sit at and eat at freely without bumping elbows or kicking someone under the table.

"So what are our jobs going to be like?" Peridot asks curiously as she spooned some of the soup into her mouth, deciding next time she should blow on it first.

"Well, sense you both are tech, you will be assigned to various odd maintenance jobs. Repairing equipment, fixing and replacing old plumbing, stuff like that. You'll work with one of us today, so ya can get a feel for the place a bit more comfortably. 5t, You'll work with Mal, she generally works Destruction and Salvage. 6t, you'll work with me and I work Grid Electrical." They both nod in understanding as they eat their meals, casually listening to the smooth jazz that filled the air. This was actually pretty nice.

The tall green woman drank her soup with a straw, not risking trying to spoon the hunks of meat into her mouth with her tongue like it was, the other mutant eyed her bowl intently before motioning to it with a question of if she were going to finish it or not, Malachite only made a low grumble noise and passed the bowl over to the other who snatched it up and gobbled up the meat and vegetables like a hungry dog.

Pearl seen something out of the corner of her eye and she turned her head fully to see what it was, but when she did she choked on her soup. Sugilite lowered the bowl from her face and followed the smaller woman's gaze to see what was the cause of her distress, maybe one of those cute roller girls bent over or something. Nope.

"Oh- heeeeey Boss!" She made sure to swallow her food before addressing their leader and waving. The blue being stopped suddenly at the sound of her name before giving the purple woman an acknowledging nod, a tray in her hand as she continued stepping up to the counter to receive food just like they had. She seemed to have changed cloths finally too, a shower as well by the looks of her still damp hair, she was comfortably rocking a black shirt and dark blue jeans. After a coughing fit, the read-head finally righted herself and took in a deep breath, tears had formed at the corners of her eyes from coughing so hard. Peridot handed the woman a napkin that was gladly accepted and used to remove said tears mumbling a meek 'thank you' to the blond before she returned to her soup "You can come sit with us-" to this, Pearl chokes again.

"Salad?"

"I'm a vegetarian." Peridot made a face at the blue woman's food selection. She respects peoples choices and what not, but some things she just can't understand.

"Why?"

"We don't have the space for animals down here, so whatever meat here is either brought in from the outside or is obtained via other standards" Boss, forked some of the greens into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully before swallowing "meat is rare here and very valuable, lots of times it's sold under the table in the Market or traded for something costly. Personally I just never gained the taste for it." The green eyed woman nodded, looking at a lone hunk of meat sitting at the bottom of her bowl. It was pretty low quality meat, defiantly not beef, but whatever it was, it was slightly chewy and filling.

"Other standards..?"

"You haven't seen any pets running around here, have you?"

"Oh.."

For the rest of the meal, it was finished mostly in the slightly awkward silence aside from idle conversation and the music from the Juke-Box. Everyone finished quickly and disposed of their garbage before putting their trays in a bin to be picked up and cleaned later. It was now that they were parting ways for a few hours, they were going to go learn about their new jobs and maybe get started a little before it was time to head back to the den for the night. Boss bid them a goodnight before starting off down a hall, probably to retire to her room or head off to work herself.

Malachite took Pearl's place behind the wheelchair and Sugilite motioned in a direction "Our job is just across from the medical place, not far from here. C'mon 6t, lemme show ya how to work some shit!" The former cop sighed before nodding, giving the blond tech one last glance.

Peridot tried to give her the best reassuring smile she could, but her face instead made a weird and almost pitiful/constipated scowl. It worked though, the older rolled her blue eyes and smiled at the 'typical Peri' moment before accompanying the purple woman down the hall. Leaving the younger woman with the giant.

Lime eyes watched the others leave as well before starting on down the hall in the other direction, eyes forward and leaning on the chair a bit. Peridot looked up at the woman and was surprised to see an expression of pain across the other's features, shoulders tense and lips pressed into a hard line, but those eyes reflected hurt.

"Hey, Malachite. Are you alright? I can wheel myself if it's too much of an inconvenience-" she was cut off by a low grunt and a shake of the other's head.

"Ll moss' thr," she spoke through clenched jaws and motioned to a sign on a wall as they passed, it read 'Scrap/Salvage' with a little arrow pointing in the direction they were going. Understanding Malachite is going to be a chore, but the blond thinks she can manage a few hours with her, she knows her way around electronics well enough, this should be a breeze.

They come to what looks like a garage door and stop, the taller comes around and stoops to grab a leather handle and heave the metal door up and slide it back, leaving the tech cop to gaze at the interior of what seemed to be a massive, well lit chop-shop. Vehicle parts lay everywhere in organized piles and on shelving units. Smaller appliances like TV's and microwaves lay on surfaces to be worked on and computers are running, showing measurements and graphs about auto parts and sales as well as demand and value.

"Holly shit." Mal only grins at the expression all over the smaller's face, she's slack-jawed and star-eyed by the shear amount of stuff and all of it is mechanical salvage. She hasn't even gotten to see what the scrap looks like yet. After a few minutes of openly drooling at the view, Peridot realized that the taller was waiting for her to come inside so she can shut the door for them and hurriedly wheeled herself in the door. It was warm in here, no surprise there. Lots of people were working in here and most of them were using blowtorches and welding equipment.

A groan behind her caught Peridot off guard, she turned to see the giant of a woman leaning on a counter a few paces behind her. She almost approached the pained woman but stopped when Malachite suddenly pushed off from the counter and began unbuttoning her pants frantically. This startled Peridot and made her back up, was Malachite going to..?

"Wh- What are you doing-!?" Green eyes darted up and met with green, Malachite froze with the eye-contact, realizing she had spooked the other woman and probably looked like she was about to sexually assault the poor thing. She held up a slender green hand defensively, showing that this wasn't what it looked like and that she means no harm before continuing on her pants, much slower this time.

She didn't take them off, instead only shimmied and stood up straighter, taller even, the pants slid a little below her hips and Peridot's jaw hit the floor once again. Low and behold, another pair of arms pulled themselves out of the pants. Thick arms, much more muscular than the ones on her actual shoulders and long like legs. These new hands placed themselves on the floor after untying her shoes and stepping out of them so she can stretch out her.. Fingers?

"Wait hold on... You have six arms..?"

"Yus." Peridot blinked at the other a few times, not putting together anything at all, none of this made sense to her.

"How many legs..?" She watched the massive woman stretch out her limbs, several pops sounding from her joints and spine. She looked much more comfortable now with four palms on the floor.

"Nonn" It was weird. All of her looked so wrong, like some experiment out of a lab, but she seemed over-all very composed and almost natural, or well... as natural as the Human Centipede movie went. Maybe not even Human Centipede status, more like a human centar "Lez ge' t wrrk." She casually walks passed the still perplexed Peridot and comes to stand beside the pile of car engines and examines it closely, looking for something in particular. the smaller of the two wheeled over to a computer that seemed like It was damaged a bit, water damage by the looks of it.

"Too bad we ran out of rice last week." Where did this new voice come from, Peridot nearly jumped out of her skin. (*If you guys didn't know, rice is great for drawing liquids from electronics. Seriously, It's crazy.) If she was expecting anyone to talk to her, she was expecting to hear Malachite's slurred deep rumbles, not this nasally pubic gruff "Oh crap, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" She turned on the voice, looking some kid in the face. He seemed to be about eighteen or maybe a little older with weirdly fwoopy spiked blond hair and really colored light skin "I'm Sour Cream." He offered her his hand and she shook it with a moment's hesitation.

"I'm lactose intolerant."

"Ha, funny. You new here? Haven't seen your face around here before,"

"Yeah, first day on the job,"

"Oh? Alright cool! Do you have history with electronic devices in any way?"

"I have a major in programming and I'm a computer wizard," she watched as his face lit up with her words.

"Nice! We need more computer savvy people! You can start by harvesting any and all data from these bum computers if possible. A lot of them have been through some stuff and are no longer usable anymore, I dunno how much you can pull from half a laptop and a scorched tablet, but I'm gonna leave that to you. If you have any questions, Mal is right there or I'm usually next door in the scrapheap!" Peridot nods and turns her attention to the broken computers, quietly working under the watchful eye of Malachite.

Peridot was one of those people that often got lost in her work, she could work very well in any environment so long as it was computer related. She blocks out everything and simply enjoys what she does. Like now.

Working so hard and intently, she didn't see people leave to retire for the night, nor did she see the illuminated red numbers on the digital clock directly above her work station silently screaming "12:34" down at her.

Forgetting that she was currently in a facility that had some strict time management, she missed shuteye.

That's okay though, so did Malachite.

The mutant continued working as well only a few yards away up into the early hours. A fumble with a screwdriver and accidentally lobbing the tool at the floor, the giant froze, hoping the noise didn't startle the other as she worked. She didn't hear the other comment about her clumsiness, instead she heard a quiet, slightly muffled, snore.

Snore? Yep. Malachite turned to the other woman and quietly made her way over to the blond. The little tech had her head resting in the crook of her elbow, body slouched over the table as her fingertips gripped at a few computer components loosely, she must have passed out changing something out of a computer and writing something down because an ink pen hung lazily from her slightly parted lips.

The mutant shook her head at the little woman with a sigh, the den would be locked up at this hour, so she took the pen from the other's mouth and removed the electronic bits from those overworked hands before leaning her back gently so she sat fully in the chair. There was a room here that Malachite often crashed in when she didn't feel like making the long walk back to her room.

The break-room was small, but long enough for a couch and a love seat, a coffee table, a sink in the far corner of the room along with a pretty good sized refrigerator, microwave, and a drink dispenser. It's homely almost, very comfortable for being a little space. Even with Malachite's massive size, she still rather enjoyed the space and the quiet humming of the electrical equipment that came from the main room. Soothing really.

The wheelchair came to rest beside the couch as the big green woman gently and carefully lifted the sleeping ex-cop up before laying her onto the long and tattered old couch. Blankets weren't something they had here, people always went home with them when they were provided and It was warm enough in the room anyway with the salvage room just outside the door so a blanket wasn't really necessary. Sour Cream was always up early every day to fill the drink machine and do inventory on it, so he'd probably wake her up when the day comes around.

"Sllp gd mane." Malachite ruffled Peridot's crazy blond hair and gave her a little smile before leaving the room to lock up the shop. Personally, she rather enjoyed the blond tech. Sure she was kinda rude, but she was good at her job and not completely inconsiderate of others. She also seemed to enjoy sci-fi a lot, so that's cool? Eh, 5t's got something oddly charming about her. However, Malachite didn't know how to feel about the other cop, Pearl. Pearl always had this look about her that screamed "Stick in the butt" and Mal didn't much enjoy that or find it easy to hang around her. Maybe Sugilite could make her feel a bit more comfortable around them as a group and loosen that stick, friends are a good thing to have down here.

Speaking of Pearl, she was left to attend the community sleeptime alone. Sugilite has her own room, but after a long few hours of trying to work with the purple brute of a woman and getting electrocuted for the majority of the time by said woman, she was pleased to have some time away from her. Maybe if she held on just a little longer at that job, she could afford her own cot and bunk with someone. That would be nice considering top-bunk wasn't a great choice on her part for a first night stay in a public place. Whoever was under her in that bed kept kicking one of the rails that held the bed up and jostling her bed.

Rude.

Not to mention the whole place quickly began to smell like body odor and urine.

AN/ I'ma stop it here, If I drag on this chapter much longer It'll probably start to get redundant. Comment If ya seen any errors please, I can't see any that aren't there for a reason (Unlike the bad grammar and spelling that makes up some dialog from characters) Also maybe I'll get more in depth about Garnet, Mal, Sug, and Sardonyx like how they were introduced if they didn't already explain how they were introduced and their relationships with people and mutants in The Crimson Bombshell.  
Anyway, I think that about wraps up this massive chapter, have a good day/night!  
Stay great readers~!

Jasper: 8LEGS DON'T OWN NOTHIN BY REBECCA SUGAR. SHE ESPECIALLY DON'T OWN ME.

Me: Cheeto plz. Don't scare away mu readers!


End file.
